1. Field
The following description relates to a wireless battery charger.
2. Description of Related Art
A wireless charger is an apparatus capable of charging a battery without a direct physical connection to the battery's electrical contacts, and typically includes a terminal body around which a power-transmitting coil is wound. To receive power from the charger, the battery includes or is connected to a wireless power receiver, which has a power-receiving coil that can interface with the charger's power-transmitting coil. Batteries of this type are used in, for example, portable terminals, such as mobile phones, and other portable battery-powered devices.
The charging efficiency of such a wireless charging arrangement usually is optimized when the battery's power-receiving coil is placed on or adjacent to the terminal body so as to be in close proximity to a central portion of the power-transmitting coil, thus minimizing battery charging time. Wireless chargers of the related art typically have a structure onto which the battery is simply placed but lack structure for aligning the battery's power-receiving coil with the central portion of the power-transmitting coil, thus often compromising charging efficiency of the battery. The lack of uniformity in case sizes of portable terminals, such as mobile phones, makes this a fairly widespread problem.
Further, such wireless chargers are often maintained in a stand-by mode, which wastes energy. In this mode, a power source remains connected to and powers the wireless charger to sense the approach of a portable terminal to be charged, thus unnecessarily consuming power.